OCTOBER 2009 ı goodreading 11
cover story
while you were on a date with a
man who wasn't your husband (The
River House)? What if a psychiatrist
discharged a dangerously psychotic
patient before he was completely well
(Alysson's Shoes)?
'The idea [for The Drowning
Girl] first came to me when I was
watching a television documentary
a few years ago about children
who remembered past lives,' says
Margaret. 'That planted a seed and
I thought, "Wow, this is such a
brilliant story idea; it's so rich in
possibilities, because you're weaving
two stories together," and that
was really exciting.' And the more
research she did for the novel, the less
convinced Margaret became that
remembering a past life was an
impossibility.
'There were all these
extraordinary accounts of
children who seemed to
recognise places, remember
people who they'd never seen --
and it was very hard to say it was
all nonsense. And if children do
remember a previous existence
it has incredible implications for how
we think about living and dying. So my
attitude did change.'
While she writes, Margaret gathers
stories that might be useful to her cur rent
project just by chatting to people about
what she's working on. 'I love to talk
iting about because
you so much,' she
I was writing this
bout it, someone
e that his little boy,
used to wake in the
ying he wanted to
at in building [the
e because it was such
ory. When you don't
u're writing about you
miss out on the possibility that people
will give you something that will enrich
your story.'
The other story woven into The
Drowning Girl is what happened to
the person whose life little Sylvie seems
to be remembering. As one character
in the novel explains, 'the death these
children say they've suffered is very
often a violent one'. The combination
of mystery, ghost story and the dilemma
of poor Grace makes for an utterly
compelling read. It's the sort of page-
turner that keeps you up all night, or
makes you hope for an all stations train
instead of an express. I mention
this to Margaret, who akcnowledges
that a pacy plot is extremely important
to her work.
'It's very difficult to write a really
strong, good plot. It so annoys me that
writers who are seen as commercial
sometimes get treated with less
seriousness when maybe the thing
they can do, write a powerful plot, is
very difficult. I suppose, too, I like the
idea of moving my readers. I want to
write something that will touch people
emotionally. And being able to do that
is really to do with [ensuring] that your
story achieves the right kind of climax
at the end of the book, which is to do
with how you set out your plot.'
Margaret's background in psychology
is closely connected to her ultimate
decision to become a novelist.
'That fascination with how
we are, and what it is from
our past that shapes us, I
think that's a very rich thing
for a writer to look at,' she
says. Interestingly, however,
most of the psychiatrists and
social workers in her books,
particularly in The Drowning
Girl, are the antagonists.
'I think I always very much identify
with the main protagonist in my
work,' she explains. 'I suppose there
are various ways of looking at it, one is
from my experience as a social worker,
another is that I'm a mother. My
younger daughter has been ill for 11
years -- which is probably one of the
experiences I brought to the book:
that of something being wrong with
your child and no-one being able to
help you. I certainly had some very
negative encounters with doctors in
that process, so I thought it was fair
enough to write about that and the
difficulties in that situation.
'Social workers and psychiatrists
are people you will come up against
with if you have problems
with your children. [In Grace's
situation], everyone around her
has an explanation for what's
wrong: a sensible, psychological
explanation. And of course none
of those explanations and theories
going to work because they are
p against a supernatural problem.
And I like that contrast between
he everyday -- the familiar -- and
the very strange.'
And how would Margaret have
advised Grace, were she to come across
this very unusual situation back when she
was a social worker?
'I think, like all the people she
encounters, the last thing I would have
thought of is an uncanny explanation.
Having said that, there is quite extensive
literature about children who remember
past lives. It's a recognised phenomenon.
There's a psychiatrist in the States who's
made it his life's work to collect these
accounts. I think he's collected about
2000 accounts of children who seem
to remember past lives. And it's hard
to refute many of these accounts. It's a
strange and mysterious phenomenon and
one that is quite extensively recorded.' So
she would have kept an open mind? 'I
would hope so,' Margaret says cautiously.
Luckily for the sceptics,
an open mind is not
equired to enjoy the ghost
tory The Drowning Girl.
ust a long train ride or
willingness to sacrifice a few
nights' sleep.
The Drowning Girl by
Margaret Leroy is published
by Harlequin, r rp $32.99.
Margaret Leroy